Thread: New force for broad immig. reform: conservative evangelicals

CNN
New force for broad immigration reform: conservative evangelicals
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN
May 10, 2010 -- Updated 1427 GMT (2227 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
*Some conservative evangelical leaders call Arizona's new immigration *law misguided
*They want federal reform that includes path to citizenship for illegal immigrants
*They're trying to persuade rank-and-file evangelicals to get on board
Many evangelicals call push for reform biblically based; some want GOP to woo Hispanics

RELATED TOPICS
Immigration Policy
Arizona Immigration
National Association of Evangelicals
Southern Baptist Convention
Liberty University

(CNN) -- Tea Party activists and other conservatives are planning rallies next month in support of Arizona's tough new immigration law, which has come under attack from Democrats, Latino groups and some maverick Republicans.

But a growing chorus of conservative evangelical leaders has broken with their traditional political allies on the right. They're calling the Arizona law misguided and are attempting to use its passage to push for federal immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

The group, which includes influential political activists such as Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy wing, and Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of Law, will soon begin lobbying Republican leaders in Washington to support comprehensive immigration reform under President Obama.

But a big part of their job is to first persuade rank-and-file evangelicals to get on board.

"There's a misconception among people at the grass roots that the pathway to citizenship is amnesty, and it's not, but we have to overcome that," said Staver, who heads the law school at the university founded by Jerry Falwell. "There's a lot of work to be done."

Staver and Land have partnered with the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an influential Hispanic evangelical figure, and Rick Tyler -- former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's longtime spokesman and head of Gingrich's new values-based organization -- to try to draft a consensus evangelical position on immigration reform.

"After securing our borders, we must allow the millions of undocumented and otherwise law-abiding persons living in our midst to come out of the shadows," reads a recent draft of the document, which is still being finalized. "The pathway for earned legal citizenship or temporary residency should involve a program of legalization for undocumented persons in the United States. ..."

Many conservatives say illegal immigrants should be forced to return to their home countries and start the process of legally coming to the U.S. from scratch.

Rodriguez, who heads the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference -- which represents about 16 million Latino evangelicals in the U.S. -- says he'll soon start presenting the document to Republican leaders like Gingrich, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio in hopes that they sign on.

"If the conservative evangelical community looks to the Republican Party and says, 'We demand integration reform, we demand a just assimilation strategy,' that may be the tipping point in getting substantial Republican support for comprehensive immigration reform," Rodriguez said.

The conservative evangelicals pushing comprehensive immigration reform say that undocumented workers should have to pay fines, clear background checks, learn English and take a civics class before being granted citizenship.

Many evangelicals say their push for immigration reform is biblically based, citing passages urging respect for civil laws and concern for migrants and the vulnerable.

"Discussion of immigration and government immigration policy must begin with the truth that every human being is made in the image of God," the National Association of Evangelicals said in a recent resolution backing comprehensive immigration reform. "... Jesus exemplifies respect toward others who are different in his treatment of the Samaritans."

But evangelical leaders are also working to convince Republicans that the party will lose Hispanic voters -- a fast-growing bloc -- if they take a strident line on immigration.

The Southern Baptist Convention's Land said that Hispanics, like non-Hispanic white evangelicals, generally take a conservative approach to social issues like abortion and gay marriage, but that they often vote for Democrats because of the immigration issue.

"Hispanics are hard-wired to be like us on sanctity of life, marriage and issues of faith," said Land, describing political similarities between Hispanics and white Southern Baptists. "I'm concerned about being perceived as being unwelcoming to them."

The last time Washington attempted immigration reform, under President George W. Bush in 2007, the project failed, largely because many conservatives and Republicans said the plan's inclusion of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the U.S. was tantamount to amnesty.

Most major evangelical groups sat out the 2007 fight over immigration reform, but many, including the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 30 million Americans, have since taken up the cause.

Trying to apply the political lessons of 2007, the evangelical leaders now pushing comprehensive immigration reform stress that the borders need to be secured as part of any reform package.

"I look at the Arizona law as a cry for help from a state that's being inundated as a result of the federal government refusing to enforce its laws," Land said.

But, he added, "I think the Arizona law is the wrong way to attack the problem."

Passed last month, the Arizona law requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and allows police to question someone about their immigration status if they are in the process of enforcing some other law or ordinance.

Critics of the law say it will lead to racial profiling, though supporters say a package of changes to the law signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer addressed those concerns.

Many evangelical leaders promoting comprehensive immigration reform say the law's passage gave new urgency to their campaign, which had been under way since last year.

Rodriguez says he declined to join other Latino groups in calling for a boycott of Arizona because he thought it would alienate white evangelicals at a time when he's trying to win their support.

Still, Rodriguez and the handful of conservative evangelical leaders promoting comprehensive immigration reform have yet to persuade some of the country's most powerful evangelical groups -- including Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council -- to come on board.

"We've been looking into this deeply but aren't ready to discuss our position, assuming we'll get to one," Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family, said in an e-mail message last week.

Even if such groups join their campaign, evangelicals backing comprehensive immigration reform may face another challenge: Persuading the White House to move forward with the plan after the bruising fight over health care reform.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05 ... ngelicals/

More psychological insecurity from the fundamentalist wing. Does it ever end?

Remember the Zogby polling from a few months back that shows a very wide disconnect between these church leaders and their members regarding illegal immigration. We have to stay on top of this and not let these leaders get away with claiming that a "path to citizenship" etc. is not amnesty -- when of course it is.

Communist News Network propaganda.

More CNN Propoganda. I know lots of conservative Christians who are just as outraged about illegal immigration as the rest of us. It is about rewarding criminals and disregarding the honest law abiding citizens.
Do not fall for the generalizations. Remember, these guys think legal and illegal immigrants are the same.

'We demand integration reform, we demand a just assimilation strategy,

Okay, who does this guy think are the ones refusing to assimilate?

The first rule of political analysis is, Follow the money. There are enough Hispanic evangelicals to make them an obvious new source of money. 'Nuff said?

Maybe this should be approached the same way we criticize Roman Catholicism for advocating for illegal aliens---as a breach of Church-State separation. Giving illegal aliens legal status and citizenship is NOT a theological or spiritual issue. It is a governmental--i.e. purely political ----issue. Churches have no more right to argue or lobby for citizenship for illegal aliens as they would for their adherents in Timbuktu. It would be like a missionary group all of a sudden intensely lobbying the US Congress to grant a special path to citizenship for their flock in...Indonesia or Botswana or Outer Mongolia.

Strictly a political issue, not a religious issue.

It looks like the pro amnesty forces are angling towards not giving citizenship, but just working papers to illegal migrants. T

hat way they can say that preference is not being given over legal immigrants, because the illegal aliens have to go to the back of the line for citizenship.

Of course, legal immigrants won't be given working papers to come here and benefit from all our country has to offer while waiting on citizenship.

Of couse, the illegal migrants will be given amnesty for tax evasion, docuemnt fraud and id theft.

The last Dem proposal I read had FUTURE workplace enforcement, like 8 years from now, so all illegal migrants could stay and millions more poor into our country.

Beck is of that opinion. The above article mentions the working status.

The monied elite wants their cheap labor.

The continued push towards North American Union continues.

[quoteThere's a misconception among people at the grass roots that the pathway to citizenship is amnesty, ][/quote]

IT IS AMNESTY! 80% (and climbing higher) of Americans DO NOT WANT "PATHWAYS TO CITIZENSHIP" OR "AMNESTY"!